Frustrations Rise To Surface Over Deficit

Published: December 18, 1998 12:00AM

As talk of the Wooster City Schools financial situation took an inevitable turn toward budget-cutting task forces at Thursday's school board meeting, frustration on the part of many in attendance began to bubble over.

Mary Wicks, president of the Melrose Elementary School PTO and a member of its task force, told the board about the anxiety her group felt in recommending cuts, which included personnel.

"We have to feel that you're being 100 percent honest with us, and we have to know that what we're doing as a task force has real meaning," Wickes said.

Mary Jo Kreuzman, a member of the Cornerstone Elementary School task force, argued that what the group is "is really a personnel-cutting task force."

"The task force needs a bigger picture. Our hands are tied by the structure of the task force system," Kreuzman said.

Superintendent David Estrop assured both women that all data from the central office has been put into the hands of building principals. "Everything we have, they have," Estrop said.

Pointing out that about 85 percent of the district's budget is comprised of salaries and benefits, and that within the last two years the budget was cut by $1 million, Estrop said, that in the past only "things" had been pared from the budget. "That's why there's not much left to cut. Essentially what is left is staff. We are people performing services for people."

"You have everything that we have there. Everything. That's all there is," he said.

Vic Cole, a bus driver for the district, talked about the frustration involved in trimming more than $74,000 from the transportation budget. Cole said it has been calculated that transportation could save about $46,000 if field trips were done away with districtwide.

A frequent target of criticism throughout the meeting was state Rep. Ron Amstutz, who has publicly disputed the district's figures that it faces a $2.4 million budgetary shortfall. Many said that by his impeaching the board's financial figures Amstutz had instilled in voters doubts about the credibility of board members and central office staff; doubts which, those in attendance said, would haunt voters the next time they go to the polls to vote on a Wooster school levy.

Leveling particularly scathing criticism at Amstutz and other state legislators was board member Rick Lowe. Lowe said that thanks to state lawmakers, "Financing education in Ohio is a screwed-up system. It's broke." He said Amstutz and other state legislators did not have the responsibility to respond adequately to the challenges of providing the state's schools adequate funding.

As for the representative's assertions that the district is not in as bad a financial position as it claims to be, Lowe responded, "It's the worst kind of disingenuousness. It's arrogant, and it offends me."

Board member Russ Welty declared, "Damage done!" by Amstutz's assertions. "All the hard work these people have been trying to do for the kids. Gone," Welty said.

Earlier in the meeting as board President James Gesler called for approval of the monthly financial report, Welty called out derisively, "I wonder if we're allowed to do that without Ron Amstutz being here."

Many in attendance said Amstutz should have come to the meeting to discuss his observations on the budget.

"Ron Amstutz is hitting us because we have increased staff significantly," Wooster Education Association President Peter Larrousse said. "It's something we did for the benefit of children. We've done a lot of wonderful things in Wooster. Now we have to dismantle these wonderful things. And they can't be put back easily."

Estrop challenged Amstutz and others in the community to examine the district's books. "Tell us where the fat is. Tell us where we're not operating efficiently, and we'll address it," Estrop said. "If he (Amstutz) has more information about what's going on in Columbus than we do, we welcome it."

Talking about the work of the various budget-balancing task forces going on around the district, Larrousse said, "We're all working for the best impact on the children of Wooster."

Added Welty, "We're all part of a team. I'm impressed with the amount of energy and work going into it."

Board member Judy Thomas said people who discuss erroneous information concerning the school district and its finances around various coffee clatches in town "do the whole community a disservice."